


Sugar cookies and Trash Brownies

by Lemon_cakes_tea



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Bake Sale, Brownies, Cookies, Friendship, Gen, Rivalry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-08
Updated: 2019-12-08
Packaged: 2021-02-26 00:02:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,995
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21604174
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lemon_cakes_tea/pseuds/Lemon_cakes_tea
Summary: Harry and Louis are rivals at their children’s school’s annual Holiday Bake Sale. Harry’s pristinely-shaped and iced cookies are the favorite every year amongst the soccer moms, but Louis’s “trash brownies” are threatening his reputation!
Relationships: Harry Styles/Louis Tomlinson
Comments: 3
Kudos: 87
Collections: 1D Christmas Fest





	Sugar cookies and Trash Brownies

**Author's Note:**

> I really enjoyed writing this so I hope you guys enjoy reading this.  
> I want to thank [Janet](http://ishipmutualrespect.tumblr.com) for helping me beta this and also make the beautiful moodboard, without you I might have submitted some wacky looking fic with a wacky cover, so thank you.

This year the annual Holiday Bake Sale lasts about a week since this time the sale is funding a local charity that helps kids with disabilities. Harry had been planning this week for two months and he's satisfied with his result. He puts up his booth and smiles when he sees kids buzzing outside the fence. Once his table is set, he brings out of his bags his stacks of tupperwares full of cookies

He neatly sets the plates with christmas themed cookies which are thinly lined with snowflakes and hearts and then he finally places the jar in which he collects all his earnings. Parents love to help by filling the jars because it gives a sense of achievement.

He still has 10 minutes to spare before the gates open so he makes sure everything is safe and perfectly presented. He didn't work in a bakery for nothing.

When he's done setting up, he walks around through all the booths to say hello to the other people, who are mostly old ladies selling yummy sweets and savory goods, and gives them each a packet of cookies. Harry, taking advantage of his charm, has managed to prepare free goodies to give away as a snack. The event manager finally goes around to inform everyone that the gates are opening in 2 minutes.

Harry won't say he's flattered when everyone flocks to his table despite it not being set near the gates, but he very much is. And just like that, his hands are busy, flying to serve people, packing cookies and icing fresh ones in front of the crowd. He also lets older kids frost their own cookies and chuckles when they let swear words slip out of their mouths while icing.

He sighs in relief when the flow of people has died down a little, with now only one or two kids and their parents coming to his table to personally ice their cookies. When Harry gets a moment of peace, he grabs a bunch of red velvet cookies and notices that 2 new people are setting their table. Harry checks the time on his wrist watch as he takes a bite of cookie and sees that it's been 2 hours since the sale started.

He watches as a petite man and woman, both dressed in sportswear, struggle to set their table. The man is brunette and the girl is blonde but they clearly are siblings. Everyone is crowding around their booth, watching them put it together, intrigued and when the pair is done, they present their table with a "tada" and everyone claps.

Harry's moved on and started icing a few more christmas cookies. He watches the girl, who has managed to open a box, and he notices that she can't even start to plate their items because people are already wanting to buy them. Behind her, her brother is setting up an electric stove and a sign that reads "tea and hot chocolate".

That can't be allowed, can it? Selling tea and hot chocolate in a bake sale? Also, that electric stove can't be safe with all these kids high on sugar around.

They manage their crowd very well, there are no accidents, the kids are careful with their hot chocolate and they keep coming back for the cakey item they are selling. They do all this with bright smiles and chirpy voices. Harry watches them steal everyones attention. Apparently, people really like the whole hot drinks with their baked goods idea, obviously.

He watches them serve people for a good part of an hour before they can finally catch a break. They make a hot drink for themselves, they both hide their faces behind the cups and laugh every now and again at each other’s jokes. It's cute but Harry doesn't like people stealing his thunder like that. He helps kids ice their cookies and manages to sell all his chocolate chip and red velvets.

He packs some coconut sugar cookies for some moms while making conversation with them.

"Oh the kids love your cookies. It's so sad we can only get them during the bake sale" Stacy says.

Harry flashes her a smile, "Stacy, you know you can always order my cookies online" Harry says and hands her a box.

"Of course! And I have! The website is so pretty, I like that you chose a pink theme," Stacy exclaims, "But it's not the same feeling buying them off your stand in a bake sale"

"Boy, I wish those Tomlinson kids had an online bakery too," Vanessa says, "Those brownies were so good!"

"And the tea!" Stacy says, "I'm sure I had about 5 cups,"

"Yeah the drinks were a great idea, their brownies got a little cold but their drink were so warming! I was almost tempted to ask them to fill a flask I could nurse the entire night."

"Let's do that!" Stacy says, "let's bring flasks tomorrow and ask them to fill those for us!"

"God knows we'll need it if we're gonna handle kids on sugar," Vanessa says as they walk away, waving to Harry.

Brownies.

They are selling brownies. Amateurs. Brownies is like the easy way out in a bake sale. Don't know how to bake? Box brownies.

It's an insult to Harry. He works so hard, makes hundreds of cookies, makes sure they are perfectly shaped, beautifully iced (minus when the kids personally ice their own cookies), chooses which flavours go well together, makes vegan, nut and gluten free options to be stomped out by some people who make their brownies out of a box and sell it with hot drinks to get more brownie points? Despicable.

The night is coming to an end and the girl from the other booth ends up hanging around with her boyfriend so the boy is left by himself. Harry figured out it’s her boyfriend because they kissed when he came to their table. Harry's target jar is full so he packs his stuff and makes his way to the infamous brownie table.

The boy is on his phone, lips pursed as he scrolls down some social media site and he doesn't notice Harry who is standing in front of his table. When he does, he startles slightly and it fills Harry with pride.

"Hi!" the boy says, "Would you like a brownie?"

Harry had been thinking long and hard about what he wanted to say to him to scare him without going off on him. So Harry does his heart-throb smile, dimples all out and the boy's breath catches. It only makes Harry's smile grow more genuine.

"I'm from that table over there," he says, pointing to his cookie stand, and the boy looks to where he's pointing, "Here's some leftover cookies,"

"That's right! Discourage them with your finesse, that should scare them off," Harry grumbles at himself for sounding nice.

"Aw! Cheers mate," the boy says and pops the lid open and grabs a peppermint flavoured cookie, "I've been hearing about your cookies all night,"

He bites into the cookie and immediately hums in appreciation, "This is good stuff," he says, mouth full, and he takes another bite, "How do you keep them warm?" he asks, stuffing the cookie in his mouth while talking.

"A dish warmer," Harry doesn’t realise he had been playing with his bottom lip as he watched Louis eat his cookies.

"Nice!" Louis says and grabs a coconut cookie this time. He takes a bite and practically moans, "You know what'll go good with this? Some nice warm tea," he says and quickly starts making tea.

Harry watches him, the stove is behind the table and turned away so it's safe, but not the safest. Also the boy seems careful making tea, like he’s scared of burning himself. The next thing Harry notices is his bum and now he can't stop looking. He knows it's rude and he's never done anything like this but he swears the boy is shaking his hips just enough so Harry can't look away. When he's done, he pours out two cups and places one in front of Harry. Harry blankly stares down at it, not expecting a cup of tea, but as soon as his hand wraps around the cup, he's so happy to have something warm.

"The coconut ones are so good. They're all nice and crumbly and they have the right amount of stickiness," the boy says, grabbing another coconut cookie. Harry just stares at him, frown on his face. He wanted to scare this boy off but it's kinda hard when he's being nice.

"Oh, silly me!" the boy says and pulls out a tray of brownies and Harry can immediately tell that these are any average brownies.

They have roasted pecan and chunks of dark chocolate in it and they are clearly on the fudgier side which means they are probably homemade and not taken from a box. Harry picks one and his hand is already starting to stain from the chocolate. He takes a bite and pulls away in shock when he sees a half bitten chocolate peanut butter cup in his wake. The brownie is full of flavours and is sweet and salty. Harry is sure there's also like five different types of his favourite chocolate bars, marshmallows and oreo cookie crumbs and now he gets it. It's a trash brownie. This guy is selling trash brownies. There's no way Harry can beat this.

"Do you like it?" the boy asks, rolling on the balls of his feet.

Harry glares at him, "A trash brownie?" he scoffs, "you brought trash brownies to a bake sale?"

"Yeah. So?" they boy asks defensively. Harry just chuckles and walks away.

\---

Day 2 goes fairly the same. Harry sets his table and meets up with all the old ladies at the other booths and they don’t hesitate to put goods into his hands the moment he reaches their tables. They coo and pull his cheeks when he gives them cookies with sweet christmas messages. He also made special cookies for his rivals but they don't seem to be the punctual type. 

When the gates open, people come flocking to his table. He's so busy that he doesn't notice his rivals but he does as soon as they are set up because the crowd at his table slowly decrease to manageable.

He watches the 2 siblings fly around their table to get cake into people's hands and Harry is envious. But he hasn't lost yet. He has changed the flavours of his cookies a slightly bit and he knows the kids will come.

Big chunky chocolate cookies.

Sure enough, the news that he’s selling the giant cookies spreads and people come flocking back to his table. He smirks when he can see from his peripheral view that the boy is folding his arms in frustration. Soon, people who are buying irresponsible amounts of warm gooey chocolate cookies start buying other cookies too and his jar is full and it's only the 2nd hour. He has to start collecting in an empty cookie tupperware, but he's glad he made more of his specialty today and cut down on the others. Of course, the sugar cookies that the kids can ice by themselves are still on the table but he put his money in the right place with the new giant ones.

"You know what would go well with these giant cookies?" A kid asks his friend, "The hot chocolate on Lou's and Lottie's stand,"

Harry doesn't need to think twice about who Lou and Lottie are. There's only one table selling hot chocolate.

But he's only started to notice now how people come to his table to grab some biscuits and then go to ‘Lou's and Lottie's’ for some hot drinks to go with his cookies. He also sees how people immediately buy a brownie with their hot drinks. Harry grits his teeth because the show is not over yet.

\---

"Would you like some hot chocolate?" the boy asks, holding out a cup for Harry while he's packing up. Harry turns around in surprise but accepts the hot chocolate. The boy grins and also puts down a brownie in front of him. "Everyone is talking about your giant cookies, can I have one?" he asks and puts down some money.

"I'm all out," Harry says. He actually is.

"Oh," he mumbled and disappointedly puts his hands back in his pockets.

"I do have other cookies for you," Harry says, enjoying his warm drink, his tired body instantly relaxing after a sip. Now Harry gets why it sells so much. "You could put some peppermint in this and it would sell like crazy!" Harry says and immediately regrets giving tips to his nemesis.

"I honestly wouldn't know to make it with peppermint," the boy says.

"I don't think it matters when it sells like crazy," Harry snorts. Of course they don't know how to actually cook.

"Erm, actually, I'm usually just twiddling my thumbs in the back. The brownie takes the cake," he says with a wink like he isn't doing it to piss Harry off.

Harry chuckles and takes a bite out of the brownie and he immediately moans at the taste exploding in his mouth. The boy raises his brows and Harry glares, daring him to make a comment.

The boy just awkwardly scratched the back of his head before stuffing his hands into his jacket's pockets, "You had something for me?"

"Oh yeah," Harry says, grinning wildly as he pulls out the packet he made especially for the brownie table. He watches the boy's eyes go from sparkly bright to wide open when he sees what’s on them.

'"Do you like it?" he asks, feeling wicked.

The boy glares and storms off, leaving the cookies behind. Harry pouts, amused, and opens the packet of cookies and munches to his feeling of victory...

\---

Day 3 is exactly how Harry expected it to be. It’s not as busy as day 1 and 2 but there are a lot less mums and kids and a lot more random people hoping to snag someone else’s home-made goodies for the holidays.

He keeps checking the table where his rivals have to be, but they haven't showed up. Harry can't believe it worked and he's regretting it now. His mum would be so upset if she knew what he did. He's so stupid and he let his ego get the best of him. He's doing this for charity, it's not a competition.

There isn't much of a crowd so he walks around the event, buying stuff from his friends. Yes friends, little old ladies are cute and they love to spoil Harry, so friends. Thanks to his friends, Harry can sit at a bench and munch on some yummy sausage rolls and cupcakes but he doesn't really enjoy them, knowing the he scared off the siblings. He doesn't let himself wallow for too long, he has a table to run. When he makes it to his table, people crowd around, but when it starts to clear a bit, Harry freezes when he sees the brownie booth set up and running. Of course, they are late... Later than usual, but they came. They came.

Harry's not sure how to feel. He feels like an idiot, sure, but instead of relief, he feels fear. Fear of how he would face them now after everything.

"Harry?" a buyer calls, snapping him out of his daze.

"Sorry," he mumbles and finishes her order as he formulates a plan to apologize.

\---

"Hi," Harry says meekly as he approaches the table.

"Hi!" the girl chirps, already plating a brownie, "Would you like some tea or hot chocolate with this?"

Harry looks behind her to see the brother glaring at him, "erm..."

"What do you want?" he spat

"You wanted some some chocolate cookies yester-" Harry starts.

"We don't want anything from you!" he cuts him off, seething.

"Louis!" his sister scolds him and they have a silent conversation with their eyes before she turns to look at him and smiles brightly, "I'm sorry about my brother. You were saying something about chocolate cookies?"

"I brought you some," Harry says slowly, a little confused.

"Thank you!" she coos and her brother rolls his eyes.

"I'm sorry," Harry says to him, feeling his cheeks burn.

"Nonsense," The girl says, "You don't need to apologize for his behaviour. A cookie will fix him." she says pushing one cookie into his hands. The boy grumbles but turns around, presumably to eat the cookie. The girl claps her hands drawing Harry's attention to her.

"My name is Lottie, this cunt over here is Louis," she says.

"Oi!" Louis yells, the left side of his mouth stained with chocolate, "Is that how you speak of your big brother?"

"What's your name?" Lottie asks, side eyeing Louis but ignoring his comment.

"Harry-"

"Thanks for the cookies Harry! They are delicious," she says over him.

"I am a baker," Harry says proudly.

"Oh is that why you're here?" Louis hisses. Lottie's eyes widen but she doesn't stop him, "Coming here to show off your cookies huh? Oh look at my perfectly baked chocolate cookies that are better than your brownies," he bellows.

"No! I-"

"You probably have a list of things that are wrong with our brownies, don't you?" he sneers, "Probably here to tell us how, I don’t know, cinnamon? Would make our tea sell more!"

"No I-"

"Harry," Lottie says, voice somber, "You should go,"

Harry hangs his head in shame and walks away from the brownie booth. He doesn't have to look up to know everyone is watching him. Their eyes itch on Harry's skin but he makes it through the night. As he packs up for the day, he wonders if he shouldn't show up tomorrow.

\---

Harry wakes up in the morning to a phone call and groans immediately when he realises what the conversation is going to be about.

"Hello?"

"Harry Styles. How are you?" Tessa, the Holiday Bake Sale manager, says.

"I'm okay," Harry says, knowing she's the type to go straight to the point. Almost as if to confirm Harry's suspicions, she immediately brings up the thing he was worried to hear about.

"I heard there was a fight yesterday between you and the Tomlinsons." For a sweet old lady, she knows how to not be sweet when she needs to.

"There was a squabble..." Harry says, trying to find ways to endear her so he can escape the scolding.

"About?"

"Nothing big... Just a bit of misunderstanding," Harry says, hoping she drops it. He lied, he knows, but if he was scared to tell his mum about his behaviour, he's terrified to let Tessa know.

"Are you sure?" Tessa asks and Harry nods his head with an agreeing noise. "Well, I don't wanna have to kick either of you off,"

Harry hums, too sleepy to listen anymore, but he knows she's saying something about the damage of kicking the best sellers in her event.

"I will let it slide this time but one more stunt and you're no longer invited to participate in our annual bake sales," She warns and closes the call wishing him a good day.

Harry groans and pulls himself out of bed. He almost convinces himself to not go today, maybe never go again, but it's for the children. He can do it for the children.

\---

Day 4 and today Harry's late.

He sees that the brownie table has been set up before his but he feels too lethargic to have any feelings. His bad mood doesn't go unnoticed by anyone that comes to his booth. Someone even asks if he isn't feeling well and Harry just nods his head because he's too tired to explain.

His mood starts to pick up when he realises that the disabled kids the charity is funding for, are here. They enjoy icing cookies with Harry and Harry enjoys their happy giggly faces.

Three hours since then, Harry realises he had hogged up all the attention from the kids, only a few others are at the brownie table, listening to the jokes that Louis is telling. They giggle as he tickles them and makes funny faces. 'He's good with kids' Harry thinks and catches the boy's eyes. He smiles shyly and continues to entertain the kids at his table.

Harry smiles to himself and, while he teaches a girl on a wheelchair how to ice a snowflake, he tells himself he should go apologise one more time.

At the end of the night, Tessa announces that they have almost reached their goal and that there is 1 more day to donate. She comes at Harry’s booth straight after, a stern look on her face. Harry freaks out and tries to set his hair awkwardly.

"Well?" she asks, "Did you guys make it up to each other?"

"I was just about to go to them," Harry says awkwardly and Tessa slaps his back.

"Good lad," she encourages with a radiating smile.

Harry puts his stuff away in front of her and packs a bunch of cookies for the brownie table. Tessa nods her head as he leaves his stall and makes his way to the brownie stall. It’s just Louis today, he notices, or maybe his sister left earlier. Either way, Harry feels sicker and sicker the closer he gets to the stall. The boy has his back turned to Harry but Harry is still scared of his reaction.

"Erm... Hi," Harry says, catching the boy’s attention, but also making him drop an empty tray.

"Oops. I'll be there in a second" he says, quickly picking the tray up and putting it away. When he turns around, his eyes widen and he coughs into his fist.

"I wanted to apolo-"

"No don't," he says and Harry deflates, "You shouldn't have to. I was just being childish, I'm sorry!"

Harry doesn't know what to say other than no. He shakes his head but the boy pulls out a brownie and puts it in front of him.

"I was just having a bad day and I took it all out on you," he says awkwardly, "My name's Louis, please accept my brownie as apology," he adds with a grin.

"Only if you accept my cookies in apology back," Harry says. Louis chuckles and grabs the bag of cookies and pushes the brownie closer to Harry, "Though, I am sorry for being mean at the start," Harry says.

"Just a little harmless competition if you ask me,"Louis says, mouth full of cookie, "I didn't even care, I thought those middle finger cookies you gave me were actually funny,"

Harry's cheeks turn warm and he just stuffs brownie into his mouth to avoid making any embarrassing sounds. Which doesn't help because he moaned in appreciation at the taste. The brownie has gone a little cold but it's almost like you're eating a lava cake with bits of cookie crumbles and peanut butter cups. Harry only turns more red when Louis waggles his eyebrows.

\--- 

Day 5 and they've raised more than their goal. Tessa thanks everybody that volunteered and everyone who donated before letting the families who were receiving help say their pieces. Harry feels happier as he packs up. He sees Louis coming towards him from the corner of his eye and his smile gets bigger. He pulls out the packet of cookies he made just for him, completed with middle finger cookies and hugs Louis in greeting.

"Oh my favourite!" Louis jokes when he sees the finger cookies and they both giggle as they sip tea and try to finish the rest of their left-overs.

"So Lottie and her boyfriend are out celebrating," Louis says and Harry hums behind his brownie, "I was wondering if you wanna hang out too,"

"Like a date," Harry dares.

"If you'd like... Yes"

\---


End file.
